Stirring the Republic

[jeff744]

Dux Porcius Iuvenalis, leader of the Rosario legions, looked over his forces, in total he commanded ten of them, 60,000 men plus their support staff, a sizable army this early in the Republic, most of the armies were still untrained. The men were training in the traditional Roman armour and sword, this was the first thing they learned upon joining the Roman Army, it taught them discipline and that to survive them must place the absolute faith in the men beside them just as the others place in them. Only after they had spent nearly two years training in this armour and learning that if even a single member turned away the entire cohort could crumble that they were finally trusted with firearms or other tools of their trades, no member of the forces was immune to this, the airforce and navy would also train in this way. Almost every other week the men would enter mock battles with other Legions, while they used wooden swords and blunted arrows men were often knocked unconscious as they were told not to take it easy on the others. There was also another reason the men were trained in the ancient Roman arts the Roman Senate would only acknowledge a coup as successful if the attacking general was able to take the capital city of Santiago using traditional Legions.

Porcius had stopped the training battles nearly a month ago, ordering instead that the men rest and train in other matters, he had gained their loyalty long ago, now he would put it to the test, he planned to march on Santiago and depose the dictator Gaius. Gaius continue to promise that the Senate would soon become elected and he would step down but it had yet to happen, Gaius was moving too slow, the republic must come to Roma now. Porcius summoned the necessary tribunes to form up all the men, all had been prepared and it was too late to turn back.

Porcius walked up a small hill that stood in from of the men, over 60,000 pairs of eyes were on him, he began to speak "The Dictator Gaius has promised us a republic for years yet little progress has been made, he still sits in the seat of a Dictator, promising that the time is almost here. At first I believed in him entirely but nothing has happened yet he continue to make these empty promises, while he makes promises the people grow restless calling for a republic now. It has become clear what must be done, we must march to Santiago and remove Gaius so that our republic can finally begin, are you with me?" The cheer of the men was deafening, Porcius walked down from the hill and spoke to the nearby Tribunes "We begin the march as soon as we are able, it will be a long march from here to Santiago". Four hours later he was standing at the front of a column of men that stretched as far as the eye could see, a golden aquila (eagle) at his back.

[jeff744]

Gaius looked over a map while on his way to Mendoza, Porcius had struck while the Santiago legions training just outside the city. His horse turned to him and tried to nip his feet before Gauis smacked it, he would put down this usurper personally. Gaius looked over to the man standing nearby "How long?" "About 2 minutes, sir" Gaius smiled at the news. A couple minutes later the door in front of him opened, a gust of wind blasted him in the face before he kicked his horse and rode out the end of the aircraft, beginning a 15,000 foot plunge, praying the parachutes worked.

[jeff744]

Dux Vibius Aquilinus lead the only trained army in Bolivia, 60,000 legionnaires. Upon hearing the news of Porcius's rebellion he had known his own chance had arrived to become the leader of Roma, he hated the idea of a republic and had only entered the military knowing that someday he would lead a rebellion against the republic and become dictator for life. Bolivia had been a perfect place to stage the rebellion, it was far away from where the fighting would occur, his Legions would arrive at Santiago while Gaius and Porcius were fighting, by the time either of them would be in condition to challenge him in Santiago his own position would have been secured. Vibius led his men south, not realizing that a fourth Dux had decided to take this chance to launch another rebellion.

Dux Caecilius Varinius, leader of the fourth, and final trained army in Roma had risen up at the same time as Vibius. Caecilius believed that Gaius was incompetent, he had seen the antics of the leader, including the now famous event where he rode his horse out of a plane, parachuting right into the middle of the assembled legions in Mendoza, and believed that a leader must not engage in acts of foolishness. His own army considered him to be stuck up but was willing to follow him as he had proven his competence repeatedly and a few well placed bribes had ensured the loyalty of anyone that might have opposed him in the army. His own army had begun marching south when word reached him of Vibius's rebellion, forcing Caecilius to turn north to defeat this enemy before he got to Santiago.

Dux Porcius Iuvenalis found himself staring at Gaius's Legions at San Luis, Gaius had arrived first and it was clear that he had no intention of letting him advance any further. Gaius had constructed a series palisade camps for his men, each one built along a line of hills, in some cases they could almost be considered a mountain instead, between the hills was a series of roads. Porcius could send men around but dividing his army against an opponent of equal size would be suicide, Gaius could simply attack while the other forces tried to go around and wipe out the main force, if Porcius tried to go around he had no doubt Gaius was ready to use his cavalry to tear apart his supply lines, the only option was to fight head on.

Dictator Gaius Attilia looked over Porcius's army, it was as he had predicted, Porcius was no genius and had more than likely forgotten that Gaius had several days to set up a very strong defense of the region, he had even included siege equipment. Numerous ballistas and catapults had been built and hidden inside the raised forts, it would be easy for Porcius to figure out that there was siege equipment if he bothered to ask people in the area but the man was arrogant and would likely attack before word even got to him about them. Gaius could already see Porcius's legions forming up, a vast swath of men, but Gaius had his own vast swath of them.

[IMG]http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q150/jeff744/CNRP/CNRPNeoRoma-rebels1.png[/IMG]


OOC: I forgot to mention this is a closed thread.

[jeff744]

Gaius surveyed the battle in front of him, Porcius had acted like he expected and just attacked without trying to gather intel. Porcius's legions had advanced using turtle formations to hide from the archers, they had not expected the rocks that the catapults flung, while most missed the ones that hit tore open the turtles which were quickly torn apart by the archers waiting for chances to get through the walls of the shields. While the ballistas also helped a lot and were far more accurate their power was far more limited and the turtle formations were able to recover after losing a few men. Their own archers used fire arrows, setting the palisade and tents behind it aflame in multiple areas, the firefighting groups were quickly falling behind and it was quite obvious the enemy would breach the walls. The enemy eventually reached the walls and began to work on knocking over the walls, a fast process in comparison to how long it took to set them up, within an hour the combat had entered into the fort, other forts were in the same situation, the forces in the forts not being attacked finally began to move after Porcius's forces became committed and maneuvered to trap the enemies between two forces and crush them.

The battle raged on, Porcius had countered the attempt to flank him by moving what remained of his reserves, tying up the men long enough for the rest of the men to withdraw for the day. The field of battles was horrendous, thousands had died and thousands more lay wounded, just a quick look showed Porcius had lost far more men than Gaius but these were hardly losses he could afford considering his last two trained armies had risen up. As Gaius walked amongst the dead in the field he felt something was off, he turned around in time to see a Black Jaguar tackle him to the ground but instead of attacking it licked him, the rough tongue felt like sandpaper. Gaius wrestled the cat off only to be tackled by two more that had hidden nearby, both rubbed against him and proceeded to lick his face, Gaius pushed the cats off of him. Gaius scratched his head as he looked at the cats laying around him before speaking to himself "How do they always know where I am?", Gaius had saved them when they were still kittens and then set them free when they got older but they refused to leave him alone, no matter where he went they showed up, a couple times they had even found him inside Santiago. Gaius stood up and walked towards the fort, the jaguars following closely behind, even from where he stood he could see the faces of disbelief on the soldiers.

Edited January 26, 2012 by jeff744

[jeff744]

[b]Border of Neo Roma and Peru[/b]
Daniel Vives stepped out of his patrol car and walked over to the semi he had pulled over for skipping the weighing station. He reached the cab and stepped up to look through the window, as he just reached the height to look in there was a gunshot and Vives fell to the ground, the man in the cab leaned out and pointed to the gun at Vives, firing several more times before driving away. Vives lay on the ground bleeding to death but somehow gathered the strength to crawl over to his patrol car and grab the radio and relay the semi’s licence plate. Vives slumped against his car and closed his eyes, thinking about the regrets in his life, that he had not gone to university, that he would never see his parents again, that he would never see his kids grow old, then it all stopped.

Police in the area quickly found the semi and began a chase that would only end when the semi was hit by its fourth spike strip, sending it into a fishtail that tossed the semi end over end into the ditch tossing the cargo across the ditch. Roman standard uniforms, swords and shields lay strewn across the ditch, the officers stopped cold, it was well known that Roma did not import their military Roman military equipment, everyone understood the significance of what was in front of them, somebody was helping the people trying to overthrow Gaius. One officer ran into the wreckage, tossing the injured man out of the cab and opened the glovebox, rifling through it in the hopes of finding something, finally he found it, the drivers log book. The officer looked for where the cargo had been picked up and found it, Talara, the officer’s mouth opened; the Peruvians were helping Gaius’s enemies.

Within hours the Roman government had confirmation that the Peruvians were helping the enemies of the state. A call to arms was issued to the partially trained legions, the leaders of the rebellions had left them alone for some reason, and Rome began mobilizing for a war. An official announcement was released soon after.

[quote]
Early this morning Neo Roman police uncovered a plot by a foreign nation to assist the enemies of the state which have started a civil war in the hopes of overthrowing the rightful Dictator Gaius Attilia. We have confirmed the origins of a weapons shipment as Peru and further concluded that those behind it were the Republicans which are now in a state of war against brothers of the same beliefs as us. We believe this was done in an attempt to make the groups they are aiding to become the government and assist the Republicans in their own war to destroy our Imperial brothers. As such Neo Roma hereby declares its full support for the Imperial forces in Peru and declares a state of war with the Republicans.
[/quote]

[Padraig Rua]

[i]'This is wonderful, truly wonderful'[/i] shouted Petronius with great enthusiasm. [i]'How we shall crush the Republicans with our growing might! Let us embrace our new found allies to the south! Victory is upon the horizon! Victory!'[/i] Petronius had his secretary reply to the Roman proclamation:

[quote][b]To: The Government of Nova Roma
From: Petronius Maximus, leader of Imperium Factio[/b]

Esteemed Senators and rightful Dictator,

I thank you for your support in these difficult times. We shall no doubt help you in your struggle against corrupt foes and usurpers. Once we have crushed our opponents, our legions shall march alongside yours. Until then, we would appreciate your help militarily. Only victory can come of our cooperation.

[i]Long live our glorious nations![/i][/quote]

[jeff744]

Gaius somewhat respected the stubbornness of Porcius, but at the same time was amazed that the men under him were willing to fight this hard despite the fact they were losing badly, the fighting had been going on for a week and all the previous defenses had fallen. Porcius now controlled the northern half of the passage but it had cost him greatly, Gaius's forces outnumbered Porcius's almost 2:1 now but it had been stuck there for two days already. The pattern of sallying forth at day and falling back at night had become normal to the soldiers, at night there was often an occasional attempt to surprise the other force with a barrage of rocks or ballista arrows. After a week of steady fighting Porcius's forces were starting to waver, the slow progress of the battle combined with the horrible odds was slowly getting to them, Gaius knew the next battle would be the big chance and Gaius planned to enter it personally, plus he had a little trick up his sleeves for later.

The men formed up just before dawn, letting the light shine over their equipment, they stood for a moment before the two forces began to advance towards each other with the archers and siege weapons prepared to fire what little ammunition remained, most had been used over the past week and replacement was slow. A flaming rock flew over Gaius's head, streaking towards the enemies before smashing into the ground and bouncing through the enemy lines, making a gap that was quickly filled in again. Men nearly tripped on the bodies scattering the battlefield, tens of thousands had died with nobody to pick them up after every battle. The lines met and it looked as if two walls had met, neither giving way in the least to the other. The difference was that for Porcius to match the length of Gaius's battle lines he had to strtch out the men to almost double their regular length giving the men less time to rest before they once again moved to the front of the battle, replacing the dead or exhausted moved to the back of the lines to rest.

A small hole showed in Porcius's lines after almost three hours of constant fighting, it was a miracle they had held on all these days but this was the chance Gaius had been waiting for as his legions pressed into the hole and Porcius's legion was split in half before completely breaking. Porcius himself rode in with his reserves to close the hole, Gaius had been waiting even longer for this chance. Gaius grabbed one of the nearby logs from the palisade and charged into the battle to take on Porcius. Gaius quickly reached the front line and tossed the log onto the nearby enemies before pulling out his own gladius to match the others of the legion, Porcius continued to hide behind his men, making it impossible for Gaius to reach him. As he looked around he noticed one thing had finally cleared up, there was nothing in the air, it seemed everyone had run out of ammunition. Gaius made a gesture to a nearby man holding a small flag, the man waved it, the message quickly reached the men manning the siege equipment who loaded three for projectiles. The men fired the catapults, sending the projectiles well behind the enemy lines, as they hit the ground the cushions that had been tied together broke apart, tossing the three jaguars out. Finally freed, they charged at the archers, tearing into them before they could react, rarely going after kills, instead biting at heels and other low areas, on the occasion that a soldier fell near the jaguars they would go for the throat but mostly they simply wreaked havoc among the archer units.

Porcius took a few of his men and rode towards the jaguars, hoping to kill them but the cats were fast and soon Porcius had been separated from his men as the cats crippled the horses they rode by biting their heels or just scared them by lunging at them. The three converged on Porcius, biting at the legs of the horse which tossed Porcius to the ground, before he could react one of the jaguars had torn out his throat. The cats continued their assault but stopped when Porcius's lines began to melt away, the main force had fallen and now all Gaius had to do was wipe out the remaining resistance in the area so he could move on to the next target.

[jeff744]

Gaius looked over the battlefield, this battle had marked the end of the remainder of Porcius's rebel legions that had escaped the battle with Porcius a year ago. Word had reacted Gaius that Vibius had finally defeated Caecilius's rebel forces, both Gaius and Vibius had been recruiting the new legions on large scale, their armies now numbered about 300,000 each, the upcoming battle would be one of an epic scale as both armies raced to Santiago hoping to get there first.

OOC: Forgot about this guy for a while there, will do a major update soon

[jeff744]

Gaius Attilia stood atop the massive walls of Santiago, the walls followed the Vespuvio (Norte, Sur and Americo) Highways, these walls stood 16 meters in height and were 3.5 meters thick with massive gates built to accommodate modern vehicles the gates were so large that modern technology had to be used to open and close some of them but there were other smaller gates built specifically so that a besieging army could break through them with enough effort. These walls had been under construction since Santiago began reconstruction and had only just finished, an inner wall followed the Autopista Central, Costanera Norte, and Liber Bernardo O'Higgins, that wall stood at a similar height but were built well enough that one had to either go over the walls or through the gates, only modern weapons or months of bombardment by Roman weapons could make a hole in the wall. It had taken hours for all of Gaius's forces to enter the city and now Vibius's army was moving to surround the city, they had begun to set up their own siege equipment, preparing to launch their first attack.


[IMG]http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q150/jeff744/CNRP/SantiagoCapitalcopy.png[/IMG]

Edited March 6, 2012 by jeff744

[jeff744]

Three days after the siege began Vibius began his attack, launching thousands of boulders from catapults in an attempt to cause a breach in the walls. People living near the walls were forced to flee as flaming rocks set fire to houses, the vast number outpacing the ability of the fire departments to keep up. The result was entire neighborhoods being set on fire but few actual breaches of the wall, a few areas had begun to break but Gaius had enough warning that he was able to dispatch more men to the area in the event the walls broke. Gaius's own men retaliated with catapults and ballista which had been place on top of towers which were located every 100 Roman feet (97 feet) along the wall.

The first real breach occurred along Highway 68 on the western wall within an hour a large enough area had been broken that Vibius was able to launch his attacks. 30,000 men had been placed along the gap in the wall in preparation for the inevitable attack. Another nearby part of the wall collapsed, sending up a cloud of dust that blocked the view of Vibius's men, when the cloud floated away the men were able to see that Vibius had begun the attack, his own men began to push towards the gap, a simple glimpse showed that Vibius had planning on attacking this point, nearly 90,000 soldiers began to march into the gap, meeting Gaius's men.

Other holes began to open due to the constant and heavy bombardment, something that should not have been possible normally, as a section collapsed one man finally noticed why, there was a hole under the wall, almost as if the section had been built to collapse in a fraction the time it normally should. Word of this soon reached Gaius who had the interior wall checked for these holes. Along the outer wall the news came too late as positions continued to be breached and attacked by men that outnumbered the defenders at almost every location. Gaius ordered reinforcement to these points but time was the enemy, often times the reinforcements were located in other positions along the wall and took a long time to reach the points.

Along Highways 68, where the first breach occurred, a disaster began to unfold as a soldier tripped, as he fell he grabbed a nearby soldier to try to stead himself but ended up bringing that man down too, that man made the same mistake, in the instant this occurred Vibius's men pushed into the small gap and began to open a hole in the defenses, by the time the gap was closed the defense lines had lost over three thousand men, this mistake also stretched the forces more as they had to fall back to reform, before reinforcements could arrive a single breach had occurred which quickly expanded and turned into a rout. In the southernmost point the situation was even worse, Vibius had used multiple breaches and surrounded some of Gaius's men, breaking the lines.

Gaius ordered tactical retreat to the inner lines, the men were told to fight their way back to the inner walls and buy them time, had the breaches only been in a couple orders they could have repelled Vibius but betrayal had resulted in a constantly increasing number of breaches.

[IMG]http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q150/jeff744/CNRP/SantiagoCapital1.png[/IMG]

[jeff744]

The Battle for Santiago had been occurring almost non stop for a full day now, Gaius's men continued to pour into the inner walls, all but a single point had been fixed, primarily due to the superhuman effort of the locals loyal to Gaius. Most of the city had been taken, at least 50,000 men were trapped outside the main control area based around the walls. The enemy had reached the South and East walls but found the gates locked and the bombardment by their catapults barely made a dent in the walls, with the filled gaps and the vastly superior construction, Vibius would be forced to try and got over, except for the single point Gaius had left. The current estimate for men that would reach the inner walls was 100,000 but the number could get as high as 150,000 if the four isolated groups were able to fight their way to the inner walls. The plus side was that Vibius's men were finally starting to truly suffer losses and were now losing more men than they killed. The best news Gaius got was that the preparations were now complete.

[IMG]http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q150/jeff744/CNRP/SantiagoCapital2.png[/IMG]

Edited March 12, 2012 by jeff744

[jeff744]

36 hours after Vibius's men broke through the walls they had forced Gaius back to the inner walls. Of the four pockets of resistance only two were able to get into the walls, the other two were wiped out after the attack on them was renewed by fresher troops. Inside the walls was total of 115,000 soldiers, outside was 190,000. The attack now consisted of an extremely heavy bombardment, even the wall intentionally left weak was standing strong, in the meantime Vibius's men brought up the prebuilt ladders and assembled the prebuilt parts to the siege towers.

Gaius wondered how long the weakest part of the wall would last while also praying Vibius did not decide to set some of his boulders on fire, it was well after midnight that he got his answer, the wall cracked and finally exploded. Vibius's men soon attacked but they met almost no resistance, even the walls were abandoned for a distance. They moved west until they finally met resistance at a hill which had been turned into a fortress. There was no gap along the line, even the walls at this point had men lining them. As Vibius's men moved to meet this wall the fortress a massive amount of flaming arrows landed in front of them, the scene that followed was almost like one of hell. The fire raced along the sides of streets, crossing them and making crossing them dangerous. Seconds later more over a hundred men were sucked into a flaming pit that used to be a crossroads, this scene was the same at all the crossroads in the area. Gaius had ordered the centers of streets weakened and designed to collapse after significant heat was placed on them, then pumped pitch into the area, they had been lit soon after Vibius's men entered the area and took until now to finally collapse. From skyscrapers, barrels of pitch were dropped on Vibius's men, shattering along with the attached lantern, setting it alight. The fires soon began to spread, taking the whole area up in flames, the light from the fires made it look almost like day, using this chance Gaius's men forced Vibius's men off the walls and archers began to pick off survivors while some soldiers moved into the gap int he wall and blocked any chance of escape. By dawn the battle for the area was over but the fires still burned, making the area impossible to invade.

[IMG]http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q150/jeff744/CNRP/SantiagoCapital3.png[/IMG]

[jeff744]

Gaius swung his gladius at another soldier, he stood on one of the few remaining crossings above the drainage canal in the northern area, a horn blew, signalling the front of line to move to the back, after completing this Gaius retired to a nearby command post. The canal was running high and fast, preventing large scale crossings, despite this there were frequent attempts to cross it, all of them resulted in the men being carried off by the rapid currents. The northern side of the canal had fallen after Vibius concentrated his attack there, the buildup to the attack had occurred overnight and many of Vibius's men had hidden in nearby houses, when they finally came out the siege towers had reached the wall along with ladders, the wall fell before reinforcements could arrive. The advance was stopped by the canal but the men on the wall were forced to withdraw somewhat to the first tower on the southern side of the canal. The Eastern region was technically controlled by Vibius but only a token force occupied the area, the damage caused by Gaius's trap had left combined with the fortress on Santa Lucia Hill (OOC: found the name to the hill) made attacking from that area suicide. The attack had been getting lighter for most of the day, reports said that there had been a small coup attempt in Vibius's camp by a group that had wanted to withdraw from Santiago and fortify the north, some of Vibius's commanders shared the view and were less willing to attack, making it harder on those that were actually fighting. Gaius's men finally held a numerical advantage over Vibius's, Gaius now had 85,000 to Vibius's 50,000, the trap, errors and the burden of attacking the walls were taking their toll, the war would likely end within the week.


[IMG]http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q150/jeff744/CNRP/innerwall.png[/IMG]

[jeff744]

A week after the battle for Santiago began the first signs of victory were showing, Vibius himself had been spotted inside the walls, commanding men while firing arrows when he got a chance. Gaius now lead two cohorts of men down an underground passage they had built before the siege, the men all wore Vibius's colours. Gaius and his men organized in an alley beside the building they came out under before moving to the location Vibius was reported at, they soon found it. Gaius ordered his men to move to the bridge and join the lines while Gaius walked over to Vibius, despite Gaius's massive figure the men around him did not even notice as Gaius walked up behind Vibius, pulled out his gladius, and in one swift swing removed his head.

Gaius's attack was soon followed by his men attacking Vibius's men from behind, quickly breaking the small force and opening the region to a large scale attack on an enemy without a leader. Within hours the battle was over, Gaius's men had won a complete victory, now he had to ensure that Neo Roma quickly recover its lost manpower, something that should prove relatively easy considering the expectation of massive losses had caused massive scale training and many were expected to finish soon.